Just a Fever
by NoelleWynters
Summary: Alice takes sick, much to Cyrus' distress. Thankfully two friends stop by to assure him it is nothing to worry about.


_Standard disclaimer applies: I own nothing, this is all for fun._

_You know all the stories that are involved with the AU I created in **Safe**? This is another one._

Alice flopped back over in her bed, reaching blindly for the blankets to drag them back over her. She searched her exhaustion fogged mind for the right phrase she'd heard Will use when he felt under the weather, but she just couldn't focus long enough to find it and she really did not care.

All she did care about was managing to get back to bed after she'd made the foolish mistake of thinking she could make it down the hall to the washroom. It was mid morning, and everyone was gone. Everyone but Cyrus that was, but he was always so quiet it was hard to tell where he was in the house. She fancied he was likely reading a book or getting into something he shouldn't. Despite Rumpel warning him to stay out of his things, Cyrus still had a bad habit of finding his way into trouble.

Although she had to admit, she was normally a happy culprit in those adventures as well; being in a town of fairy tale characters was quite the adventure for her. It seemed though she was the subject of a children's book that was very popular in this realm too, and she could not stop laughing over the depiction of a genie in some movie Henry had shown her a few days ago. The way this world perceived all of them was rather amusing, but at that moment that wasn't worth thinking about. All she wanted was to go back to sleep, her body ached, she was hot and the very process of thinking was starting to exhaust her.

It had been a long time since she'd been sick, so long she couldn't even remember when it was, and if she'd had the ambition she would have pulled out a notebook to write Cyrus a note explaining what was wrong with her so he wouldn't be alarmed, but she fell asleep before she could even remember where she had a notebook in her room.

* * *

The grandfather clock in the hall signaled it was noon hour, which pulled Cyrus out of what he was doing. For once he wasn't up to something, not that he was often into mischief. He didn't really see it that way, but it would seem Rumpel, Neal and Belle would beg to argue when he and Alice were into things. They just wanted to know more of the place they were living, it wasn't like they were reading any of the books they found labeled _journal_ or _diary_, they both knew better than that.

On this particular winter day he was actually cleaning. He had to admit, that had been one plus to living in a bottle; no cleaning was really required as there was hardly anything in there. He marveled at all the trinkets and such people could acquire, and he wondered what use they had for some of it. So far as he was concerned, they were just an annoyance when dusting as you had to move everything, only to put it back.

But at least he wasn't getting into anything, despite feeling an urge to whenever he found locked boxes and the likes hidden behind things.

The fact it was noon made him wonder where Alice was. It wasn't like her to sleep this late, he couldn't recall a time he'd ever seen her sleep late into the day. That thought was enough to give him an excuse to give up on dusting, not that he needed one but he did like to justify exactly why he stopped when the room was only half clean, and made his way upstairs to see if she was alright.

He knocked lightly on the door, calling her name. A few seconds turned into a minute or longer, and she didn't answer him. He tried again, a little louder this time, with the same result. A wave of concern washed over him, he technically wasn't someone who was pushy, centuries of being submissive was hard to undo, but he was genuinely worried about her. He finally decided to open the door to look in and make sure she was just sleeping, or possibly had gotten caught up reading or even writing. Ever since discovering she was the subject of a children's book Alice had decided to write her adventures out.

Cyrus slowly opened the door and felt a touch alarmed to see her still in bed, and it was more than obvious she had been there awhile. He walked into the room and went over to the bedside, looking at her curiously. She looked flushed, which wasn't normal.

"Alice?" he called, reaching out and touching her face. If he wasn't worried before, he was now; her skin felt as though it was burning beneath his fingers, and at his touch she'd moaned as if in pain.

Before he could say anything else he heard a knock at the door. He was loathed to leave Alice, but he thought maybe whoever was calling might be of some help. He'd never seen Alice like this before and was beside himself on what to do, it actually occurred to him she could be dying. Mortal life was so horribly fragile, his long life emphasised that at every turn.

Quickly he made his way down the staircase and opened the door to find not one, but two people standing on the front porch, much to his surprise. It seemed odd the one would come around without Rumpel home, but he was glad to have two people who might be able to help him make sense of what was wrong with Alice.

"Hey sunshine," Will greeted as Cyrus ushered both him and Jefferson in. "We were in the neighbourhood and thought we'd pop in for a cup of tea."

Jefferson grinned at the genie, instantly noting his distress. He could tell it wasn't over the strange little nickname Will had recently started to refer to him as, that normally just caused Cyrus to roll his eyes. This was something else. "Is there something wrong Cyrus?" he inquired as he shrugged off his jacket.

Cyrus nodded as he took their coats from them to hang in the closet. "Its Alice," he stated, and before he could say much more Will jumped in.

"What's wrong? Is she alright?" he asked, urgency in his voice.

Cyrus grinned slightly, he was glad Alice had such a good friend in Will. There were one or two people in Storybrooke that had warned him he should keep an eye on the Knave when he was with Alice, which had prompted him to ask why. He was always surprised when people thought Will was in love with Alice, he knew the love they shared was the type you would find between a brother and sister, not that he knew much about that himself but after lifetimes of observing mortals he'd learned to decipher the difference. He was well assured in Alice's love for him, and knew Will was no threat.

"She's still in bed, I went to check on her and she feels as if she's on fire. She won't wake up either, I've never seen anything like this before," he answered, his worry betrayed through his voice.

Will was up the stairs in about two seconds, with Cyrus and Jefferson trailing at a quick pace behind. The Mad Hatter knew what was wrong with Alice, and he was certain Will had figured it out as well, but fancied there was a high chance Cyrus had not witnessed illness quite so up close. But first they'd assess how sick Alice was before alarming the genie any more than needed.

Will sat down on the side of the bed; Alice looked like a picture of misery: her long hair was splayed out over the pale purple pillow her head was resting on, a few dirty blonde strands were stuck to her flushed and glistening face and anytime she was brushed with the touch of another she groaned in discomfort.

He shook his head and glanced over his shoulder to Cyrus, who was standing a few feet away with nothing but worry shining in his dark eyes. "She's got the flu mate," he stated, smiling a touch.

"What?" Cyrus asked.

Jefferson laughed a bit as he walked to the other side of the bed and placed the inside of his wrist on Alice's forehead to gauge her temperature. From the heat he could tell the fever had just begun in the last day, if not less than that. "It is a virus, that's all. Grace was sick with the flu all last week, there is something going around at the school so it isn't surprising just about every kid in town has caught it. She was over visiting Henry a day or two ago wasn't she?"

Cyrus nodded, starting to feel slightly relieved that she wasn't dying. Or at least he thought she wasn't dying, he didn't know what this thing they kept calling the flu was. He'd seen illness before, not that he understood any of it, and he knew people could die from viruses and the likes.

Evidently his worry was easy to read, as Will assured him Alice wasn't going to die from the flu. "She'll be fine, just keep an eye on the fever and make sure it doesn't get too high. You can give her some medications to help with any symptoms, but it will just have to run its course. Don't worry about it, she'll be fine. Just be glad she's not vo..."

"Will, don't be crude," Jefferson snapped, reaching over and giving the Knave a light slap on the shoulder.

"Oye, what is with you people?" he exclaimed, snapping his mouth shut when Alice began to stir slightly in her sleep.

Cyrus motioned them out of the room, if Alice was sick he knew one thing; she needed her rest. And listening to the three of them talk or bicker was going to do her no favours.

Will and Jefferson followed him down the stairs into the kitchen where Cyrus put on the kettle for tea. He listened idly as the Knave and Hatter argued a bit between themselves while he got things together for tea. Normally he wasn't allowed anywhere near the kitchen, as he had a slight habit of making a mess of things, but there was no way he could screw up tea.

"So, have you never been sick before?" Will asked, leaning back in his chair.

Cyrus turned around and shook his head. "No, not like that. Silver is the only thing that can harm me, mortal diseases do not affect me."

"Well aren't you lucky, nothing worse than being down and out with the flu. Tossing your cookies and all that," Will mused, earning himself another slap from Jefferson. "Seriously, I'm starting to think you all get together just to pick on me."

"Stop talking like that and I'll stop hitting you. It really is simple," he answered as he got up to help with the tea. He figured Cyrus could handle it himself but sometimes two sets of hands were better, and it reminded him a little of all the tea parties with Alice when she was a little girl.

He walked over and reached up into the cupboard for one of the fancier teapots he knew Rumpel kept around, which was on a high shelf. He actually had attempted in the past to convince Rumpel to sell it to him, more now as it never seemed to be used. That always baffled him, after the curse had been broken and he'd pop in for tea Rumpel always brought that teapot out as he knew how much Jefferson liked the look of it. He supposed it was his way of taunting him with the fact he had prettier things. From a fancy tea service to a pretty woman like Belle. Not that Jefferson cared all that much, it was all in good fun.

"Oh no, not that one," Cyrus said, motioning for him to put it back after he'd set it on the counter. "If I drink tea out of that one I'll be sick for days."

Jefferson looked at him curiously, and then realized why it hadn't been used in recent months; it was silver. He could have kicked himself for not making the link to the fact Rumpel quit using it shortly after Cyrus had shown up. And the fact the genie had just said silver hurts him, he really should have clicked.

Will snickered from where he was sitting. "Even I knew that was a bad idea. Really, all that mercury from the hats addle your brain?"

Jefferson gave Will an exasperated glare. "I'm going to spike your tea with strychnine I swear," he mumbled as he put the teapot back and brought out one of the plain ones. He preferred making tea an occasion, and the silver teapot always made it feel that way but if it was going to make one of his friends sick there was no point in it.

He also would hate to get himself on Alice's bad side for poisoning the love of her life. He'd always hoped, ever since she was a little girl on strange adventures, she'd find someone to love her someday in the way she deserved. Of course he'd figured it would be a young man back in whatever land she came from; as it was more than obvious she wasn't from Wonderland. He'd been slightly shocked when a genie claiming to know Alice arrived in Storybrooke, and had been speechless to find out he was the man she was going to marry. But then, he reasoned, Alice was anything but conventional.

It was strange to think little Alice was grown up, she'd become something akin to a daughter to him whenever she visited. That didn't mean he wasn't trying to find a way back to the Enchanted Forest, but it was pleasant to spend an afternoon drinking tea with her and forgetting all of that for an hour or two. And he loved hearing all her adventures, he had wondered what had become of her after the curse was broken, since she wasn't in Storybrooke and the curse obviously had not pulled her out of Wonderland as it had him.

"So," Jefferson said, setting his teacup down and watching Will take another sandwich off the plate in the middle of the table. "What is it with you and tarts? Didn't you know the Queen of Hearts was more for cutting off heads and asking questions after?"

* * *

Alice didn't want to wake up, she still felt awful. Her head hurt, her body hurt, and she felt like she had been submerged in the Boiling Sea, which was a disturbing thought at best. But no matter how hard she fought consciousness, she couldn't stop her eyelids from slowly blinking open.

She'd slept the day away. She still felt like she could sleep for another few days and still not be fully rested. Slowly, she turned her head towards the light coming from the lamp on her far besides table, cursing it for being on as Rumpel had never bothered to get her a smaller bed yet, and the idea of moving to turn it off was rather undesirable.

"Alice?" a voice asked, and she inclined her head slightly to notice Cyrus sitting on the bed near her, a book in hand. That explained why the lamp was on, as she was certain she hadn't left it on.

He was looking at her with concern etched on his face; she could tell he'd likely spent the day worried about her. "Sorry," she said, trying to sit up and failing miserably. She was just too exhausted, even after sleeping the day away, to be bothered with getting up it seemed.

Cyrus raised an eyebrow questioningly at that. "You're starting to sound like me, whatever do you have to be sorry for?"

She laughed slightly at that, she did oddly sound like him right then. "I was going to write a note to let you know I had caught the flu. I wasn't sure if you would know what it was."

"Will and Jefferson came by and explained it, and ever since the rest of the household arrived home they've all been up at one point or another to check on you. Don't worry about it, I will admit I was scared at first but I would have figured it out eventually," he assured her, reaching out and running his fingers through her tangled hair.

Alice sighed as she leaned into his touch, glad he was there. Being sick was one of the worst feelings in the world, but at least she had someone there to comfort her through it. "Wait, won't you catch it if you're around me too long?" she inquired. She didn't want him to get sick as well.

He smiled warmly at her, leaning over and giving her a quick kiss on her forehead. Mainly because he loved her, but also to check her temperature. He felt any excuse would work to give her a kiss, and she certainly wasn't pushing him away. "I'm a genie, remember? The only way to make me sick is with silver," he assured her.

"Oh, then will you stay with me?" she questioned, a bit of a pleading edge in her soft voice. She knew he'd do it regardless, even if she wasn't his mistress anymore he had a very hard time saying no to her.

He smiled at her warmly, pressing another kiss to her warm forehead. "As you wish, Alice."


End file.
